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Brits! Help!

stridey said:
I read this comic "bunny" every day, which usually I love. Today though, I just don't get it. I'm thinking you have to live in the UK to get it. Anybody care to enlighten me?

Rinky Dinky Link (I'm iGav ;))
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The Bunny's holding an autumn leave.

There was and probably still is a problem during the autumn/winter in the UK, when the tracks get covered in leaves, the trains loose 'grip' - meaning trains can't go as fast (not that they're that fast in the UK anyway these days), so they're delayed, cancelled etc due to 'leaves on the tracks'.

It's the most ridiculous thing to hear announced - but it's true.

I remember they cleared a whole line of trees along the railway track behind my old house a few years ago - just to reduce the risk of 'leaves on the track'. :rolleyes:
 
Haha.. leaves.. What will you brits think of next?

CanadaRAM said:
Oh. And here I thought the problem was bunnies on the track.
They're lumpier than leaves.
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*starts crying at prospect of bunnies being run over by trains*

Poor bunnies!
Won't someone think of the bunnies?

dmw007 said:
But not quite as slippery.
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:(:(:( Noooo!!!
 
Applespider said:
Well on Monday, my colleague's train was cancelled because there was the wrong kind of ice on the points...
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Damn that troublesome ice from the wrong side of the tracks...





I'll grab my coat.
 
Applespider said:
Well on Monday, my colleague's train was cancelled because there was the wrong kind of ice on the points...
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Hahaha... bringing back some of the horrors of commuting to London!

Over the 5-years I was commuting, SilverLink must have spend more than 1000 quid on Taxi's, to take me from London to Leighton Buzzard due to cancellations (door to door and faster than the train too!). Each time this happened, there were BIG queue's... expensive business.
 
dubbz said:
What about bunny blood then? That should be somewhat slippery.


Maybe if there's many of them.... hm....
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My Dad tells a great story of collecting snails with his brothers during WWII and putting them on the train tracks at an incline so that the Nazi's trains couldn't climb with it's wheels spinning on squished up snails!
 
Yep, comign up to Winter now too, so it will also be down to the wrong type of snow and frozen points, as usual. I'm just glad I rarely rely on the train to get me to work, taking the bus instead.
 
mac_head101 said:
At the front of the train, in front of both front wheels, couldn't they blow a very strong current of air at each rail so that any leaves would be blown off???
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The problem isn't when they're dry and can be blown off. The problem is when it's wet too (often) and the leaves turn into a sludge that the trains can't run at their proper speed on hence the delays. They've been cutting down the trees that have leaves prone to turning into a mush that border railway lines in an attempt to cut the problem off at the source so to speak.
 
mpw said:
My Dad tells a great story of collecting snails with his brothers during WWII and putting them on the train tracks at an incline so that the Nazi's trains couldn't climb with it's wheels spinning on squished up snails!
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Insurgents eh! Now why is that such a bad word these days? :rolleyes:
 
mac_head101 said:
At the front of the train, in front of both front wheels, couldn't they blow a very strong current of air at each rail so that any leaves would be blown off???
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actually saw an invention to counter the dreaded "leaves on the line", it involved firing a high powered laser onto the track about a foot infront of the engines wheels which vapourised the leaves. Worked really well on the demonstration they had in their lab. Rail companies would probably decided it was too expensive though. British Rail are tight B*******s
 
dodonutter said:
actually saw an invention to counter the dreaded "leaves on the line", it involved firing a high powered laser onto the track about a foot infront of the engines wheels which vapourised the leaves. Worked really well on the demonstration they had in their lab.
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Probably just as well they didn't use it: can you imagine the resultant chaos if a train waiting for signals to change were to vaporize the track as well...?
 
skunk said:
Not if "bung some words here ye barmy bloke and we'll translate em to yank in a chivvy" is their idea of English. Even Dick Van Dyke could do better than that.
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I'll never learn english!

:cries:
 
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